Guild Wars 2

Hello,

Currently I am looking to buy a new video card. However, being a little wet behind the ears I am a little confused over this card I am interested in. The power requirements state that it needs at minimum 400W of power, 50W less than my current card. BUT, it also says it needs a maximum requirement of 116W Graphics Card Power.
Along with my current card it’s also a PCI Express 2.0. x16. But my current card requires 2x 6pin, while this card I am looking at is only 1 6pin.

I have a 500W PSU which has run my current card great, but this maximum 116W Graphics Card Power requirement is, as I said, confusing me.
What does that mean? Does it mean that a 500W PSU won’t be enough or what?

Thanks for your time.

Your current graphic card uses two 6pin, so im pretty sure the newer card requiring only one 6pin should work fine with your 500W PSU.

116W probably means the max power the graphic card would use, are you looking at at a 550ti?

kirito.4138:

Your current graphic card uses two 6pin, so im pretty sure the newer card requiring only one 6pin should work fine with your 500W PSU.

116W probably means the max power the graphic card would use, are you looking at at a 550ti?

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I am looking at the 550Ti.

500W will be fine for a 550ti.

SolarNova.1052:

500W will be fine for a 550ti.

That’s good to hear. Thanks for your reply.

The 550ti (EVGA 2GB GDDR5) card I was looking at is now sold out at the price I was interested in getting it at. It was the refurbished card option, so I had my doubts about buying it. I just wanted to know if it would have worked with my current computer. Tho the 1GB GDDR5 refurbished editions are available for the same price as the 2GB. I have zero experience with EVGA, and have only had one low end card by PNY. So, I am not too sure which company to “trust” more.

I’ll just go back to looking at various cards and seeing how they match up to my current one.

If anyone wants to recommend a card that is in the same ballpark as a XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870, is priced <$110, and works with a 500W PSU, please let me know. It does not have to have 2x DVI.

edit: I only play MMOs on my computer. I am not what you would called a “gamer”. Guild Wars 2 is the only game I am playing right now, so the card would only have to be able to play it just as well as the 4870 and possibly any other MMOs coming out in the near future.

(I have really no complaints about the 4870 I have had it for 4 or 5 years. I am only interested in replacing it due to the fan starting to make a lot of noise. I stupidly forgot to send the lifetime warranty in and XFX no longer makes the fan for it. (Yes, I could get it the card on EBay if I really wanted to, but my experiences with EBay are not good.))

Im no expert when it comes to ATI cards, its been a long time since i used one. So when people such as urself ask about them and what could be as good or better. I use this website to help compare. It isnt always 100% accurate in terms of gaming performance, and thats where more research and actually benchmarks come in. But for an overal performance comparison ..its really good.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Find you card there, then look at anything above it for an upgrade.
IMO for GW2 you should look at cards that score 2650 and above.

Ofcourse the amount of performance increase you actually see with GW2 will also depend on where your CPU starts to bottleneck. Chances are with your current card you wont be seeing much ..if any. ..botleneck due to you cpu as your gpu will cause slowdown before you cpu does. A new card though, like say the GTX 460, will show up any weakness in your CPU if you have your graphics settings set to medium.

Price wise im not much help as im from England..prices in the US compared to England are very different.

SolarNova.1052:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Find you card there, then look at anything above it for an upgrade.
IMO for GW2 you should look at cards that score 2650 and above.

Thanks again.

I looked up my 4870 on the benchmark chart and it has a rating of 1,407. Well below the benchmark you recommend. The 550ti has a mark of 1,909, so obviously better than the 4870.

As far as your preferred score of 2650, the GeForce GTX 650ti is the closest to my price range. At a benchmark of 2,718 it would comply with your opinion, be almost 1000 points better than the 550ti and still have the same power requirements. But it is a PCI Express 3.0 x16 card.

My computer is a Gateway DX4860 Intel i3-2100 3.1GHz Win7 64-bit with a Intel H67 Express chipset(http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/model/PT.GCCP2.003).
Which states on the Intel product page has a PCI Express 2.0 revision (http://ark.intel.com/products/52807/Intel-BD82H67-PCH).
Which I am guessing, would not support a 3.0 x16 card?

3.0 cards are compatable with 2.0 .. Infact 3.0 isnt even being used atm. No card out is using all the bandwidth 2.0 has available. So you have no worries there.

The 650 would be enough. But i will still point out that the X50 nvidia cards are really high end media cards. .not gaming cards. So whilst it will be ‘enough’ ..you may feel the need to upgrade again soon after. That said though the 650Ti is better than a 460… so your only other choice on Nvidia’s side would be a 560ti which it soudns like would be outside your price range.
If you get a 650ti ..make sure its a ‘Ti’ becouse there is a big difference. And if you get a non reference card you could probably OC it for more performance if you so desired.

the GTX 690 saturates PCI 3.0 fairly easily.

SolarNova.1052:

3.0 cards are compatable with 2.0 .. Infact 3.0 isnt even being used atm. No card out is using all the bandwidth 2.0 has available. So you have no worries there.

The 650 would be enough. But i will still point out that the X50 nvidia cards are really high end media cards. .not gaming cards. So whilst it will be ‘enough’ ..you may feel the need to upgrade again soon after. That said though the 650Ti is better than a 460… so your only other choice on Nvidia’s side would be a 560ti which it soudns like would be outside your price range.
If you get a 650ti ..make sure its a ‘Ti’ becouse there is a big difference. And if you get a non reference card you could probably OC it for more performance if you so desired.

I found an XFX ATI Radeon HD 6770 1GB. That would fit my budget great. It’s benchmark is about 300 points higher than the 4870, and when I use the “Can I Run” option under Guild Wars 2 on this website (http://www.game-debate.com), both cards come up exactly the same for 1920×1200.
I also ran the test for the 550ti and it came up with a better score, but only by 5% .

The 650Ti 1GB beat them both by 21% and 16% respectably on that site, and of course the benchmark is much higher.

Now, the 650Ti is about $40 more than the XFX 6770. But, the XFX comes with a lifetime warranty, while the 650Ti only comes with a 3-year.
So, while I am inclined to want the 650Ti, I am not sure if it’s the better deal in the long run.
Either I buy the 650Ti and hope that if something goes wrong it’s in the first three years.
Or I buy the 6770 and hope I do not need to upgrade for long while…

Squall Leonhart.2075:

the GTX 690 saturates PCI 3.0 fairly easily.

I would hope that a card that costs $1000 would do what it said it did. lulz.

Squall Leonhart.2075:

the GTX 690 saturates PCI 3.0 fairly easily.

True but… the performance hit is minimum, so solar is right, actual videocards don’t need PCI-e 3.0, not even the 690
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/53901-nvidia-geforce-gtx-690-review-25.html

Yea plus the 690 is a dual GPU ..i was more talking about single GPU cards. But still the point stands ..even the 690 has ‘next to no’ issues with 2.0 vs 3.0.

Anyway OP…

If you want my advice on which to choose out of the 2. Go for the 650ti. 3 years warranty is perfectly fine for a peace of PC hardware ..by the time that warranty runs out you will want to upgrade….infact you may want to upgrade before it runs out… trust me

and actually

OCL and DC both get a impressive boost from having 3.0 O.o

This is a good buy for $100 GTX 550ti factory OC to 950MHz Sale ends 11/28
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=65800&vpn=N550GTX%2DTi%20M2D1GD5%2FOC&manufacture=MSI/MicroStar&promoid=1030
And no iffy mail in rebate.

SolarNova.1052:

Anyway OP…

If you want my advice on which to choose out of the 2. Go for the 650ti. 3 years warranty is perfectly fine for a peace of PC hardware ..by the time that warranty runs out you will want to upgrade….infact you may want to upgrade before it runs out… trust me

Makes me think that if I run into a cirumstance were I am going to need to replace my card in a couple years, I may as well just get a card better than my current one, but not as pricey/good as the 650Ti card I am interested in (EVGA SSC).

zerk.9701:

This is a good buy for $100 GTX 550ti factory OC to 950MHz Sale ends 11/28
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=65800&vpn=N550GTX%2DTi%20M2D1GD5%2FOC&manufacture=MSI/MicroStar&promoid=1030
And no iffy mail in rebate.

Thanks for the heads-up. However, I won’t be getting paid before Wednesday…

You dont wanna go any lower than the 650ti imo.
Its already lower than the lowest ‘gaming’ gpu.

Keeping a gaming rig even remotely up to date is relativly pricy compared to a simple media pc.

If you buy low end performance parts, expect to upgrade often. If you buy mid to higher end parts you can get away with upgraidng less often. The cost is the same in the long run, it just depends on how much money you have free at the time.

I personaly prefer to go the 4 year route where you upgrade lots/all of the parts at the same time and get top end stuff so that it lasts atleast 4 years. Its pricey ..but works out the same as buying low end parts more often. Say every 2 years.

Now i work in British pounds but i spend roughly £1000 to £1500 every 4 or so years. Thats equal to between £250 and £375 a year ..which isnt bad considering you can buy a low end gaming rig for about £600-£800 that will last maybe 2 years before needing to upgrade. Thus it works out the same or better in the long run spending alot in one go to last 4 years.
My lats computer lasted 4 years and cost me roughly £1200. My latest computer cost me again roughly £1100 plus in march ill be buying a new GPU since my current is still from my old computer ..so another £350 can probably be added totaly £1450. That should then last me a good 4 years.

I personaly measure how long it lasts buy how well it can run up to date games on atleast ‘high’ (ultra/max prefered) settings whilst maintaining as close to 60 fps as possible. Once fps dips below 30fps whether it be for only a few seconds during a explosion or somthing ..thats when an upgrade is required..unless ofcourse its due to poor game optimisation.

So yea anyway point is ..if you spend little* expect to do it often.

*little in terms of ‘gaming’ rigs.

SolarNova.1052:

You dont wanna go any lower than the 650ti imo.
Its already lower than the lowest ‘gaming’ gpu.

Keeping a gaming rig even remotely up to date is relativly pricy compared to a simple media pc.

If you buy low end performance parts, expect to upgrade often. If you buy mid to higher end parts you can get away with upgraidng less often. The cost is the same in the long run, it just depends on how much money you have free at the time.
(edited for space)

I do appreciate your advice, let me just say that first.
However, you and I are looking at this two different ways.

You say that you spend between £1000 – £1500 every four years for your computer needs. If I use today’s conversion rates, that is between $1600 and $2400.
Now, if I were to add up my last two computers, video cards, and other stuff that I have bought in the last five years or so, it would be at most $1500. Which in pounds is just shy of £940. Needless to say neither of these computers would be considered gaming rigs.

That is not including the games that I bought in those five years. Which by the way totals to 3. WoW: Cataclysm expansion, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Guild Wars 2.

I only upgrade my computer out of complete necessity. I upgrade because either a piece fails/starts to fail like in this case with my video card fan making too much noise and I have no other option other than buy a new one, or I have to buy a new computer because it’s more cost effective than just replacing the parts. If I am really interested in playing a new MMO, then sure, I may even upgrade then. But that is rare.

I do not upgrade because my FPS drops below 30 in some situations. I do not upgrade because I can not play a game on high/ultra settings at all times without issues.
Would I like to play this game at max settings or as close to it as possible? Sure.
Do I want to pay for the technology that allows me to do so? No.
I am simply not invested enough in playing video games to justify buying hardware that makes sure I can play games at or close to max settings.
(I do not care if I can not see every blade of grass, or some other cool details that only people with gaming rigs can see. That’s not important to me. Making sure I can play the game is. Making sure I don’t have to set every setting to low to just to play, is. Right now every one of my settings is at medium, except character detail and environment detail which are set to high. And the only time I get heavy lag/low FPS is when I am in LA when there is an event on. So it’s not like I am barely able to enjoy the artwork or game-play.)

And even tho I have been playing this game since launch day, I have yet to set foot in a dungeon, a WvW match, or even a sPVP match. So this may or may not change things for me as far as whether or not my stubbornness on not buying the “best” hardware will make me unable to enjoy participating in WvW. As I do like PVP a whole lot more than raiding/running PVE instances.

As far as your plans/time frames with how you gauge yourself buying new hardware, I agree with that. Not because I want to stay on top of making sure I can play every game that comes along at the highest settings, but because I know in that 3-4 year time frame technology has gotten so much better that it would be stupid not to buy a new computer or at least upgrade parts.

I do understand that if I am going to buy a new video card I should at least consider getting a more expensive/better one as it will last longer. But, the way I am looking at this is right now, my 4870 allows me to comfortably play this game(outside the possibility it may not handle large groups of people in WvW) and it’s ratings are on the low end as it’s an older card. And if it wasn’t acting up I would not have even made this thread asking advice on getting a new card. This tells me that I could buy a Double D Black Edition XFX ATI Radeon 7770 which is better than my current card, but not as good as a 650Ti EVGA SSC, and still be just as happy as I am now. Saving myself close to $60 or £37 and knowing I can still enjoy this game in the way I have become accustomed to. Having said that, that does not mean I have totally disregarded your advice in getting the 650Ti. For all I know when the time comes when I am ready to order my new card I may be able to even spring for something better than the 650Ti SSC, maybe something along the lines of the 560Ti you recommended(but still be able to run on a 500W PSU with no problems.)
It’s just right now, today, spending that extra $50 – $100 (or £31 -£62) is something I have to think through. And if I decide to just buy the cheaper 7770 this time, hopefully by the time I have to replace it I am in better spot where I can afford to not be hesitant in regards to buying a more expensive card.

NP i fully understand.